ryouga,

you clearly confirm our worst fears about the business ethics of those who run Patientline at board level.

How can the NHS do business with a blatantly scam operator of this kind!

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1123034.0.contract_...

Contract wrangle leaves patients without TVs

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PATIENTS' groups and MPs have called for urgent action after a wrangle between health bosses and a private firm has left patients at Blackburn's new super hospital with no TVs or telephones.

And health bosses have now threatened to pull the plug on an electronics firm which agreed to put in the systems.

Patients have had to request a trolley phone or get out of bed to go to a day room to watch TV because of the delay by troubled firm Patientline.

Cash-strapped NHS bosses were also forced to spend £17,000 on televisions for the day rooms at the £113 million hospital.

Critics said they were infuriated by the delay and said it meant patients were having to spend hours in bed with nothing to do.

The delay is a result of an investigation into the Slough-based firm by communications regulator Ofcom, which included criticism of high prices. The firm said it is now waiting to see what ministers have to say before installing any new systems.

Stephen Brookfield, director of finance at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We will continue to work with Patientline to try to resolve the situation. If we can't resolve the situation we will look for alternative suppliers."

Helen Hedges, vice chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement, the trust's official watchdog, said: "It is to be deplored that the situation is taking so long to be resolved. Anything that helps patients to keep in touch with family and friends and the world outside is to be desired."

Coun Tony Humphrys, chairman of Blackburn with Darwen Council's health overview and scrutiny committee, said: "Telephones are a lifeline for people in hospital. A lot of people are confined to the wards and can't get out of bed to watch television."

Tom Fallows, spokesman for Blackburn Trade Union Council, said: "If services are provided by the private sector then we all know from time to time it gets into difficulties which risks patient care and treatment. We would rather all services be provided and maintained by the NHS."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "I hope it is resolved as soon as possible because patients want access to a phone and TV pretty close to their bed.

Mr Pope said: "I don't have any problem with private companies running it. These are not core facilities so it makes sense to contract it out. The NHS isn't an expert at providing these services but it is important to get the contract right."

The systems have also not been installed at the new phase five development at Burnley General Hospital.

A spokesperson for Patientline said: "We fully appreciate and understand the concerns surrounding the availability of Patientline in the Royal Blackburn Hospital."
>>

http://www.hdmagazine.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=16&storyCode=2041761

DH report on Patientline's charges imminent

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The result of a year-long review of bedside phone charges, which is likely to impact on the provision of telephone and TV access for hundreds of thousands of hospital patients, is about to be published by the Department of Heath (DH), HD has learned.

An unfavourable result could tip debt-ridden telecoms company Patientline into bankruptcy.

The DH undertook the review in January 2006 after communications regulator Ofcom completed an investigation into Patientline's call charges. Friends and relatives have to pay as much as 49p/min to call patients who use the company's communication terminals.

Although Ofcom expressed significant concerns about the level of charges for incoming calls to hospital patients, it found it had no authority to intervene and asked the DH to examine how Patientline's services, which include bedside radio and TV, can viably be provided on a basis that does not involve charging high prices for incoming calls.

But the DH has yet to report on the issue, and as a result of the prolonged uncertainty Patientline's shares have collapsed from 82p in July 2005 to 5p. The company is now struggling with a £19m debt and cannot afford to install new terminals in hospitals.

[...]

A Patientline spokesperson told HD: “We want call charges to go down but in conjunction with NHS trusts fully utilising the applications that our systems offer. These include food ordering, patient surveys and access to clinical information.”

[...]
>>

NGMsGhost wrote on Jan 31^st, 2007 at 2:50am:

The DH would certainly not want Patientline - or any of the other providers - to cease trading, but the Government has said that the DH is not in a position to mandate the NHS to use these additional products and therefore cannot guarantee that the take-up will be sufficient for the private providers to significantly reduce their incoming call charge.

NGMsGhost wrote on Feb 1^st, 2007 at 12:53am:

Each contract is held with an individual Trust. Each Trust could decide to to use the additional products, but that's what the Government has said the DH is not in a position to mandate the NHS to do.

Quote:

If relatives don't listen to the current call price announcements why would they listen to call price pre-announcements?
Patientline doesn't have to plead to be allowed to charge less - they set their own rates, up to the maximum stated in each contract.

NGMsGhost wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2007 at 8:05pm:
I understand that, but don't see the relevance to my point, which I'll try to restate more clearly. You said:
Quote:
If relatives are unaware of the cost despite the call price announcement that is currently played at the beginning of a call, why do you think they'll be any more aware of the cost if they were given the same message in a pre-announcement instead? The only difference it would make is that the charging period would start after they've ignored the message instead of before they've ignored it! I would support call price pre-announcements so that no-one is charged whilst they're told how much they're being charged, but I can't see why you think it would make "all the difference" and people would suddenly start taking notice of the information they're given.

Quote:

My concern is that patients aren't left with no phone, TV or radio facilities, which would be the scenario in most hospitals if the bedside phone/TV system were to be withdrawn, whether because one or more of the providers - of which Patientline is only one, albeit the best known - abandons sites with lower revenue than others, or because it ceases to trade. Many of the comments here have gleefully anticipated the demise of Patientline (mysteriously ignoring all the other companies), but I think that having no facilities would be even less in the interests of patients than a system where the use of chargable facilities is optional - at least until a realistic way out of the mess is found that allows the companies to charge less without going bankrupt.

I respond to postings that I believe to be factually inaccurate, and comment when I think they are over-simplifying issues, such as with the ban on the use of mobiles in wards. For example: even if the DH was allowed to subsidise the systems in some way, how would that help with hospitals in Wales, Scotland, and N. Ireland?

The government's view is that it should not intervene and thereby distort a purely commercial market by mandating Trusts to take any particular courses of action. My view is that the government distorted the commercial market when it mandated Trusts to enter into contracts, for systems with specified minimum facilities and concessions, within a period of less than four years.

Dave wrote on Feb 5^th, 2007 at 3:10pm:


Totally agree with you Dave.

There needs to be a facility for people to be rung back after every call they make to be told the cost of it and/or a facility for more high tech display phones to show this on their displays.

The point many people who have been ripped off by hospital car park charges and phone charges have made is that at the time their wife or mother is terminally ill with cancer or whatever and that is their main preoccupation and seeing their relative as much as possible their main goal.  Only later when they are less emotionally distressed do they realise how utterly disgusting it is that they have been completey fleeced and left massively out of pocket just to do the right thing by their sick relative in hospital.

Was visiting a relative in hospital today and spotted  a Patientline's notice.  If you want to know a patients number call 0870  .....calls charged at national rate.